Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-03
THR ROSARY.
Rev. Father Scannell,s sermon at
the Cathedral.


"And the angel said to her, Hai
full of grace" Luke CIV, %. Th
festival of the solemnity of the rosar.
was instituted to commemorate tn
victory of the Christians over tn,
Franks at the ba tie of Lepants in tn,
year 1871. Gregory ordered that 8
solemn festival should be kept ever,
year on the first Sunday of October
the day on which the victory was won
which the Pope ordered public pro
cess; IN and recitation of the Rosary
TO- the success of the Christians. Tht
origin of the Rosary as it is at presen
dates to the time Of st. Dominic in the
Twelfth century. He introduced it, un
der an inspiration from Heaven, tc
counteract the errors and impieties O.
the Albigensian heresy, which denied
the virginity of Mary, mother of God
and by implication denied also the
mystery of the incarnation. AS the
Angelical salutation inaugu
rated the Incarnation, and
revealed the coming redemption
so the repetition of the same saluta-
ton would awaken belief and per-
petuate it in the minds of the people.
The devotion met with extraordinary
success, 50 that over 100000 heretics
and many of the lukewarm and indif-
ferent were converted and brought to a
better harvest. From this time the
Devotion of the Rosary has been
styled, "a singular protection against
Heresy and Vice."
The devotion consists in repeating
certain number of times the Lords
Prayer, the angelical salutation and
the doxology, while we mediate on
the beauties of Christ's life and
death. This is what st. Domino did.
He taught the people to mediate
while praying and to join the two
most beautiful prayers that lips
can utter, with the considera-
ton of mysteeirs, the most august
and proper to touch the heart.
The Angelical Salutation has been
repeated as practice in the Church
from the early centuries. The Church
loved by Christ, says st. Bernard in
the twelfth century, and ever exulting
in the remembrance of it's joy, keeps
up the custom OF repeating this saluta-
tion. We know. however, that the
dignity and prerogatives of the Blessed
Virgin Mary became more dignified by
the condemnation of Nestorianism at
the Council Of Ephesus in 431, so ven
Grafton and devotion to the Mother Of
God became more pronounced and
widespread. .Nestorioua taught there
were two persons in Christ, one Of
man, the other of God, and that the
Blessed Virgin Mary was not the
mother of God, but the mother OF the
man Christ. This doctrine destroyed
the mystery of the incarnation, the
divinity of Christ and the divine ma
ternity of Mary. The Catholic church
called the bishops together at Ephesus,
where they declared Anathema against
those errors and proclaimed the divin-
ity of Christ and that Mary is, there
fore, mother of God. The first Canon
reads: eff any one shall not confess
that Emanuel is truly God, and that
therefore the Blessed Virgin Mary is
the mother of God, since she brought
forth the word of God, made flesh, as
it is written, the Word was made
flesh and dwelt amongt us; let him be
Anathema." The people of Ephesus
besieged the church doors where the
council was held, anxiously awaiting
the decision. When it was announced
they. became enthusiastic in their
demonstrations of joy and made the
air resound with the name and praises
of the Mother of God, when the prac-
tice began to obtain of saying, "Holy
Mary, Mother of God, pray for us
sinners %
The Greek Oriental Church which
is coextensive with the empire of Rus
sia and some adjacent provinces, and
which was united with the Roman
Catholic Church for at least the first
ten centuries, agrees with us In the
yeneration and devotion we give to
the mother of aGod. We therefore
find ourselves to-day in harmony with
the teachings and practices of the
early Christian centuries on the sub
ject of the culture and devotion paid
to the Blessed Virgin Mary. In the
middle of the fifth century, says Car
dinal Newman, found Christendom
of the sixteenth and and nineteenth
reflected. The principles and prac-.
tices of the church now were those OF
the church then. 1t was like a spirit
rising from the troubled waters OF the
old world with the shape and linea-
ments of the new.
Protestants alone reject the pious
practices of veneration and honor to
the mother Of God. They style her
the mother of Christ, "Christolokos'
using the language of the Heresiarch
Nestorus, rather than "Mother oi
God" "Theotokos" after the IAN
guage of the Council of Ephesus.
But Protestants have rejected '"rra-
dition" as one of the sourcesof divine
truth and practice and from the ma
ture of their system became unable
to understand or explain the sacred
Scriptures. Denial of the living au-
thority of the church as by Christ
appointed, and the substitution in Its
stead of the supremacy of individual
Judgment, must necessarily lead to
vague and incorrect estimate and un
derstanding of revelation. Take iron
the State living sovereign power
and leave for mans guidance the
written laws of the realm, and you viii
speedily have anarchy and the des
truction of the Commonwealth
A likely ruin must we see in the
world of truth and religion, if we re.
tain only the Bible, that is, the letter
of the law, which we may interpret a
VIC please, and where each one ma.
erect tribunal for himself when he
becomes the arbiter of his own belief
Like the Jews of old, who cried out
1.-THE temple of God The temple o
God |" teachers of Professionalism use!
to cry out "The Bible! the Bible! y
Now we see Protestant clergymeii
treating the Bible as if it were worl
of fiction, which contains some mora
truth, as many a novel or romanc'
does. but false and ridiculously alb